Amazon Removes Local Voice Processing for Echo Users, Forcing All Alexa Queries to Cloud Storage

Starting March 28, Amazon announced that users of Echo smart speakers will no longer have the option to configure their devices for local processing of voice assistant Alexa’s requests, thereby eliminating the ability to prevent voice recordings from being sent to Amazon’s cloud.

This notification was sent to users who had enabled the «Do Not Send Voice Recordings» setting on their Echo devices. As of March 28, all voice interactions with Alexa on Echo speakers and smart displays will automatically be transmitted to Amazon for cloud processing.

In an email, Amazon stated: «As we continue to enhance Alexa’s capabilities with generative AI features that rely on the computational power of Amazon’s secure cloud, we have decided to discontinue support for this feature.»

One of the new functionalities of Alexa+ is an enhanced ability to recognize who is speaking (Alexa Voice ID). To implement this feature, Amazon is removing the privacy-oriented option for all Echo users, including those who are not interested in the subscription version of Alexa or wish to use Alexa+ but do not want to enable voice recognition.

Industry experts explained that Amazon promises to delete recordings of users’ Alexa requests from its cloud by default after processing. However, users with the «Do Not Save Recordings» option enabled will find that the Voice ID feature on their existing devices is disabled. Voice ID allows Alexa to perform tasks such as sharing designated calendar events, reminders, music, and more.

Previously, Amazon had stated that «if users choose not to save any voice recordings, Voice ID may not work for them.» Amazon also informed users: «Voice requests to Alexa are always encrypted during transmission to Amazon’s secure cloud, which has been designed with adequate security measures to protect customer information. Customers can continue to select from a reliable set of controls by visiting the Alexa Privacy Dashboard on the service website or going to the ‘Learn More — Alexa Privacy’ section in the Alexa app.»